IYA2009 Updates

Solve a Mystery: Each month TWAN brings you a photo with a mystery. Share your thoughts with us and our global viewers. The explanation or the final conclusion will be posted at the month’s end. This program is a collaboration with Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena (UAP) international project.

Coverage: TWAN in Algeria: From Martian landscapes of Sahara to Mediterranean paradises, the diversity of Algeria and the active astronomy society have welcomed TWAN exhibits and imaging missions.

Join TWAN fans on Facebook: Learn about the latest updates on the project and communicate with TWAN photographers at The World at Night page on Facebook page.

Visitors comments: New option on TWAN website for more interaction between the photographers and visitors. Write comments on TWAN Photos, ask questions, and share ideas. Find “comment” bottom below each photo.

Host a TWAN event: TWAN events have travelled to about 30 countries since 2008. New planning for TWAN exhibits and educational workshops is started and we seek for the best venues around the world with interest to host TWAN events in 2010 and beyond. Contact us

The Guest Gallery is a well-received section on the TWAN website, featuring selected outstanding Earth and sky photos by non-TWAN creative photographers from around the globe. If you have such remarkable photos to share with the TWAN Guest Gallery then please contact us. There are new featured photos in the Guest Gallery:

TWAN is a global program of Astronomers Without Borders (www.astrowb.org) and a Special Project of International Year of Astronomy, an initiative by IAU and UNESCO. The World at Night is to produce and present a collection of stunning photographs of the world's most beautiful and historic sites against the nighttime backdrop of stars, planets and celestial events. The eternally peaceful sky looks the same above all symbols of different nations and regions, attesting to the truly unified nature of Earth as a planet rather than an amalgam of human-designated territories.

The first Europlanet prize for excellence in public engagement with planetary science has been awarded to Dr Jean Lilensten of the Laboratoire de Planétologie de Grenoble. For more than 10 years, Dr Lilensten has worked to share the magic of planetary aurorae with school children and members of the public across Europe, using his ‘planeterrella’ experiment.

Dr Thierry Fouchet, Outreach Coordinator for Europlanet, said, “Dr Lilensten deserves recognition, not just for his dedication in developing planeterrella and his inspirational demonstrations, but also for his generosity in sharing his expertise and making the plans for the planeterrella available so that this spectacular outreach tool can be used more widely. Through this Europlanet prize, we hope to encourage outreach within the planetary science community and we are delighted that this first prize will go to someone who has shown such a strong commitment to collaboration and sharing best practice.”

Dr Lilensten said, “I am very pleased to receive this award. I am sure that this important recognition will also be an award for my laboratory and all the friends who supported me in these outreach activities.”

Aurorae, or the Northern and Southern Lights, are beautiful green, red and blue lightshows that occur around the Earth’s magnetic poles. They provide scientists with crucial information about the space environment surrounding the Earth, our ‘space weather’.

The planeterrella is inspired by experiments carried out at the turn of the last century by the Norwegian physicist, Kristian Birkeland, who first described how the Northern Lights were caused by the solar wind’s interaction with the Earth’s magnetic field. In a series of experiments, Birkeland aimed a beam of electrons at a magnetized sphere (terrella) inside a glass vacuum chamber and succeeded in recreating the ethereal glow of the aurora at the sphere’s poles.

In 1996, Dr Lilensten visited Terje Brundtland, who was restoring apparatus that Birkeland had used in 1913 for his largest experiment. Following the visit, Dr Lilensten built several terrellas with colleagues and students. From this series of experiments, he envisaged a portable, flexible version that could be used both as a scientific tool and for public engagement.

In addition to demonstrating how the Earth’s aurora are created, the planeterrella can show auroral effects at Uranus and Neptune, the Van Allen radiation belts, the magnetopause and various effects seen around highly magnetized stars, such as stellar ring currents and jets.

Dr Lilensten has trained colleagues and students in demonstrating the planeterrella and the Laboratoire de Planétologie de Grenoble hosts approximately two demonstrations per month. The experiment has been shown in exhibitions around France and featured on French and German television. Dr Lilensten has developed a website (http://planeterrella.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr) in French and English that describes the experiment, gives information about the aurora and shows images and movies of planeterrella in action. Observatories in Toulouse and Paris-Meudon now have their own copies of the planeterrella and another will go on display in the Palais de la Découverte in Paris later this year. Dr Lilensten is working with groups in the UK, Italy and Switzerland who propose to build their own versions.

Dr Lilensten will be presented with his award of 4000 Euros at the European Planetary Science Congress 2010, which will take place at the Angelicum Centre – Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Rome, Italy, from 19 – 24 September 2010.

The “Oxford” symposia are the foremost international conferences in the interdisciplinary field of archaeoastronomy, attracting leading researchers in fields such as astronomy, anthropology, archaeology, history, museum studies, surveying, statistics, and the history of religions as well as the history of science and astronomy.

The ninth “Oxford” International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy will be held in Peru in January 2011, the first time this event has been held in South America.

Oxford IX will focus upon topics such as methodological and theoretical issues in cultural astronomy, ethnographic and historical approaches, regional syntheses, and cultural astronomy as a tool for breaking down barriers in society.

The main Oxford IX conference will take place in Lima from Jan 5 to Jan 9, 2011. There will be a half-day excursion in the middle, and a variety of other social events are planned. Afterwards there will be a two-day excursion to sites in the Casma area of northern Peru, including the now-famous Chankillo, whose thirteen towers have been hailed as a solar “observatory”.

A regional meeting, featuring tutorials and workshops, will be held in the vicinity of Cusco starting on Jan 13. This will focus on South America and aims, in collaboration with SIAC, to support and encourage the development of cultural astronomy throughout the continent.

Invited keynote speakers at Oxford IX include Gary Urton, Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Pre-Columbian Studies at Harvard University, who is well known for his work on the Andean knotted string devices known as khipu, and George Miley, IAU Vice President for Education and Development, who is spearheading the IAU’s initiative to use astronomy to stimulate sustainable development in the developing world.

The Scientific Organising Committee for Oxford IX includes internationally renowned specialists from a variety of academic disciplines, based in a variety of countries from all five continents. The Local and Regional Organising Committee includes representatives from Peru, Argentina and Brazil. The Oxford symposia are supported by the International Society for Archaeoastronomy and Astronomy in Culture (ISAAC).

In 2008 "Ghana Science Project" built the first public planetarium in Accra, Ghana the only digital planetarium in West, East or Central Africa. The planetarium gave a good boost in astronomy education in Ghana. Since it's inauguration in 2008, the planetarium has come a long way serving and educating many students and public. Education & Public Outreach Unit of Cornell University (USA), currently running a book drive to facilitate Ghana Science Project to improve their astronomy outreach efforts. Read more: http://astrodrive.lakdiva.net/projects/ghana_bookdrive.html

If you or your group would like to donate materials to another group from a developing country, please go to - Get Involved and read FAQ for more information. Get in touch if you are interested - contact.

REQUEST!

Do you belong to an astronomy group from a developing country? We welcome you to request books for your group, please go to the Request page.

ABOUT

To learn how AstroBookDrive started and who's behind it, please go to the About page

Following the global success of the YouTube move The Known Universe, with over five million views, Carter Emmart, director of astrovisualization at the American Museum of Natural History in New York was invited to present at the well-renowned TED Talks in February 2010.

Galileoscopes are in stock and available for rapid delivery - no more long waits. New prices are $30 each for 1 to 5 kits, or $150 for a case of 6 ($25 each); that’s like getting 1 free for every 5 you buy at the regular price! Ongoing support for teachers and others using Galileoscopes with students and the public is now available through NOAO’s Teaching With Telescopes website: http://www.TeachingWithTelescopes.org. Also, through a generous donation from Ric and Jean Edelman, 1 to 5 **FREE** Galileoscopes are available to U.S. primary-, middle-, and secondary-school teachers; recipients pay only for shipping/handling. For details, go to http://www.galileoscope.org and click on the Order Now! link. Now is the time to order Galileoscopes for use in your Fall 2010 education and outreach programs!

Llegamos en Paz para Toda la Humanidad: A modern view of Apollo 11The IYA2009 Committee in Puerto Rico has produced a book (in Spanish) that contains the oral presentations at the Apollo 11 celebration event. You can find the PDF here: http://www.astronomy2009pr.org/Apollo11_book/book.pdf

Winner:- GlissadeReason: Planet Glissade sounds beautiful. Glissade means to glide along, as in ballet, which is like a planet, which glides along in the universe.Name by: Erica Reed, 10years old, USA.

Runners Up:-

Name: SumerReason: I believe a planet should be named "Sumer." Sumerians are from Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, and we should honor our first civilization on earth.Name by: Brenden Reed, 8years old, USA

Name: NaveenReason: Naveen is the synonym of Newness, change and something different. So I chose this name for a NEW planet.Name by: Akansha Sharma, 8years old, India

Name: AnimaReason: Anima is an Italic word, which it mean the soul. Finding a new planet make us more curious as it may bring new expectations to our soul to live on a new planet like as the Earth.Name by: Nuwani Ishara Thotawatta, 16years old, Sri Lanka

Name: AstraeusReason: Was the Titan god of the stars and planets, and the art of astrology.Name by: Christina Thowsen, 12years old, United Kingdom

Name: MakriliosReason: Makrilios is a contraction of the Greek words makrinos, meaning far, and ilios, meaning sun. This is because at Kuiper belt distances, the sun is far.Name by: Deanta Kelly, 12years old, USA

Category Three – Schools, Groups and Astronomy Clubs

Winner:- VirgilReason: In honor of both the poet and the astronaut (Grissom).Name by: Bruce McHam - McKinney High School, USA

Runners Up:-

Name: SerendipityReason: The children think Serendipity is a great name because many great scientific discoveries are a combination of hard work and good luck!!Name by: Neighborhood After School Science Association (NASSA), USA

Name: De WinneReason: Frank De Winne was the first ISS Commander worked for ESA.Name by: Oberon, USA

Winners will receive a copy of the award-winning documentary of Venetia’s story, Naming Pluto and a film poster, care of Father Films, telescope time care of Bellatrix Observatory, Italy and a signed certificate from our judges.

The team and jury did not plan to select Runners Up for Naming X but as several names stood out we would like to extend a special mention to our Runners Up by way of a signed certificate from our judging panel.

Space is a big place, and even with their giant telescopes, astronomers just can’t cover it all. This is where you come in. Yes, you.

Astronomy is one of the few scientific fields where amateur scientists can, and frequently do, make significant contributions. But now space scientists are increasingly also looking to people with little or no training for help with their research. Sometimes they are looking for free labor for tasks that humans can still do better than computers, like identifying different types of galaxies. Other times it’s numbers of eyes on the sky or feet on the ground they’re after. But more and more, they are finding ways to get regular citizens involved.

Amateur astronomers and regular folks have already had an impact on the science by making observations of fleeting cosmic phenomena that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

When an asteroid or a comet hit Jupiter in July 2009 and then again earlier this month, amateur astronomers in Australia and the Philippines were the first to notice. Amateurs have invented new telescopes, kept tabs on variable stars and discoveredcomets. And you don’t even need any fancy equipment.

“We can learn a lot from someone taking a cellphone video of a meteor as it burns up in the atmosphere,” said Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office.

But what if you’re not the lucky one who is in the right place at the right time? You are still needed. Citizen scientists have also become crucial for helping astronomers with one of their most intractable problems: too much data, too little time.

Here are some astronomy projects you can take part in right now, while you wait for your iPhone to capture a meteor.